How to Build Draggable Fractional Angle Maxis Power Lines

[metarvo]

How to Build Draggable Fractional Angle Maxis Power Lines



I've been playing around with power lines again (what else? ).  However, what I'm about to say concerns only the Maxis in-game draggable power lines, and not any ploppable power lines that I have made or might make. 

What if I told you that draggable fractional angle power lines were possible to a limited extent?  Of course, since these power lines would be good old Maxis defaults (or whatever replacement you might use for them), they would be functional.

Before you start, I must warn you of four limitations.  First, the only poles that can appear in dragged fractional Maxis power lines are the straight diagonal pole and the intersection diagonal pole.  This will result in the pole's rotation not matching that of the wires.  Second, the technique requires a little more space, so it might not be
right for developed cities unless the mayor is willing to do a little bulldozing.  Third, the technique cannot make neighbor connections directly.  If a pole at the end of a fractional line rests on the edge of a quad, however, then a regular orthogonal power line can be dragged into it to form a neighbor connection, although the pole will turn into an intersection as a result.  Finally, the poles dragged in this manner will have fixed wirespans between poles.

All you'll need for this are the Maxis power line tool, the Road tool, and the Bulldozer.

1.01

First, plop a single road tile.  This is a common technique used for terrain leveling, but I've included the picture here for formality.  For reference, each of these pics are oriented to the north, and this will be important for reasons which I will explain in the next section of this tutorial.  Where you'll want to place the road tile will depend on the intended area and direction of the planned power line.

1.02

Beginning with the tile directly south of the single road tile, drag diagonally to the northwest three tiles, which will be three north and three west.  Continue to drag until instructed to let go.

1.03

While still dragging, drag one additional tile to the north.  This is where the interesting things start to happen.  Notice that the second pole that was dragged out earlier has shifted one tile to the south, which results in an approximate 33.69° angle between these two poles (or 66.31° from due north).

1.04

While still dragging, drag one additional tile to the northwest.  The pole that is at a 66.31° angle from the initial pole is now a normal diagonal pole as opposed to an intersection pole, and a new pole can now be placed 3 tiles north and 1 tile north of the second one.  The last two poles run at an 18.435° angle, which matches the angle of the FAR.  So, two new angles are produced from one drag.

1.05

Release the mouse button.  The poles themselves are the standard diagonals, but the wires actually run at the fractional angles that have been dragged out.

1.06

I'll cover the 18.435° line first.  To continue the 18.435° line, place a single Road tile three tiles east and one tile south of the last pole in the line, and drag a curve that ends with a pole 2 tiles northwest of the last pole in the line.  This can be a little tricky, but it is necessary so that the end pole won't turn into a diagonal intersection instead of a regular pole.

1.07

While still dragging, carefully slide over two tiles east, so that the last pole in the newly dragged line is 3 tiles north and 1 tile west of the fractional line's end.

1.08

Release the mouse button.  This process leaves behind somewhat of a mess of road tiles and power lines, so bulldoze as desired.

1.09

Repeat the steps as needed to build a line of the desired length.  You can get something like this if you combine both angles and play around with dragging from different sides of the road tiles, which I will explain in more detail later.

1.10

If you chose to go with the 66.31° angle instead, you can certainly do so.  Just repeat steps 1.01 and 1.02, placing each single Road tile 2 tiles north and 3 tiles west of the previous one.  Be sure to carefully and quickly drag out the diagonal power line from the existing pole so as not to turn it into an intersection.

Later, I plan to post the results that can be obtained from dragging a power line from a different side of the single Road tile.

[rooker1]

How did you ever figure that out?
Fantastic find.

Robin 

[Luke09]

As rooker1 said,fantastic find.How many time did you used to find this?I could never do it alone 

[noahclem]

Wow, fantastic! Can't wait to try this out!

[metarvo]

Replies:

Robin (rooker1): I did it accidentally once, and was shocked and delighted at the results.  I never really figured out much about it, though, until I started playing around when I was bored.  Thanks for the kind words! 

Luke09: I was bored, so I started playing around with SC4 in an attempt to break the game the grid.  I built upon what I had discovered accidentally, and next thing I knew, I discovered a method to the madness.  Thank you for the compliment! 

noahclem: I'm glad you like it!    I've tested it, but I'm just about ready to use it for real.



Now that we've had a little recess, the bell has rung and class is back in session (on a Saturday in summer, no less!).  The subject is once again "Draggable Fractional Angle Maxis Power Lines."  Last time, I covered the two angles, 18.435° and 66.31°, that resulted from dragging northwest from the south side of a single road tile.  Now, I'll cover the results from a northeasterly drag.

2.01

After placing the single Road tile as described in step 1.01, start at the tile directly south of the Road tile and drag three tiles north and two tiles east.  You should see the same setup shown in the pic.

2.02

Release the mouse button.  You'll have a -26.565° angled power line.  There's only one tile in between poles, which seems narrow to me, but there will be more on how to deal with that later.

2.03

Unless you want to have an intersection pole appear, you'll want to be careful when continuing the line.  Once the next Road tile is placed one tile north of the starting point that you would drag from to continue the line, drag three tiles north, across the Road tile.  Continue to hold the mouse button.

2.04

Slide over two tiles east, while still dragging.

2.05

Release the mouse button.  You will have continued the -26.565° power line.  You'll probably want to bulldoze the single Road tiles after you're done.

2.06

If you like what you've seen so far, you'll be pleased to know that there's more.  Each fractional drag (except for the 66.31° one, but not for long!) can be extended diagonally.  For example, you can continue to drag diagonally one tile past the 18.435° setup seen in Part 1 to get a 26.565° angled line.

2.07

Once you release the mouse button, you'll get this result.  Note that this is a longer span variant of the -26.565° angled line that I built earlier in this post.  This provides more space under which roads can be dragged.  If you want to continue it, apply the techniques used for Part 1's 18.435° setup, only drag out each 18.435° span one additional tile diagonally to get 26.565° spans.

2.08

The diagonal extension can be applied to the -26.565° line as well.  Just drag it out one additional tile as shown in the pic.

2.09

You'll get a -33.69 line, which is actually the equivalent of the 66.31° line rotated clockwise 90°.

2.10

We don't stop there, though.  Each of the fractional spans, except for Part I's 66.31° span, can be extended diagonally until a point 10 tiles north of the starting pole of that span is reached.  If the span is extended past that point, a turn to a 45° diagonal line will be forced.  Still, this allows a diagonal extension of the -33.69 (66.31°) line which wasn't possible through Part 1's method, and it allows for even more angles.

2.11

Finally, here is a chart which shows the different results from dragging in different diagonal directions from different sides of single Road tiles.  The methods used for dragging fractional angle power lines from the south side of a Road tile can be applied to the other directions as well, with the appropriate directions substituted in.

Since this can be done with a completely empty Plugins folder, I'm wondering where Maxis was going with this feature.  It could be unintentional, but even if it is, it could be considered yet another mystery about the power line network.  The power lines can go across water diagonally, and they can make turns over water, and now I know that they can do this over land.  I might experiment with using NAM elevated Road puzzle pieces over water to see if the same effect can be done over water.  Since the power lines are technically a transportation network in game, it makes me wonder if Maxis intended to go somewhere with these features.

[Luke09]

Again,a nice find.I wanna ask you one thing.Its necessary to have SC4 Rush Hour to do this?Because actually im only with SC4 without the expansion,and i wanna try this.See ya 

[metarvo]

Luke09, I really don't know, seeing as I only have SC4 Deluxe Edition (which is the same as SC4 + Rush Hour).  I guess the only way to find out would be to try it with the vanilla game.  I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work with vanilla, seeing as it only uses roads and power lines, but I can't really test this on vanilla SC4 since I only have the deluxe game.

[Luke09]

Its ok 

[metarvo]

Since the NAM Elevated Road pieces can be built over water, and the Elevated Road over Blank Terrain piece is a single segment of Road like the single Road tile, I said, "Why not?" and decided to try dragging a fractional angle power line over water.  It actually worked!


Dragging a fractional angle power line over water is just like dragging one over land, except for one difference.  The only difference is that you must substitute the Elevated Road over Blank Terrain piece for the single Road tile.  So, you can actually build a fractional angle power line bridge.

[Luke09]

Nice! breaking the game grid at water too.But can happen CTD(it means crash to desktop right?) issue on doing this?

[art128]

Now that's a FAPL ! Excellent find Metravo ! 

[superhands]

this is incredable! makes me think anythings possible now!

[mightygoose]

nice discovery.

[mrbisonm]

Yap, that is one darn good find.....probably only scratching the surface of possibilities.......

Good work.

Fred