Since EA just spent months fixing that mistake everyone (except EA) knew they never should have made, you may find yourself tempted to finally buy the 2013 version of SimCity. Nuts to that, says I, 'cuz there are still plenty of changes, additions, and enhancements being made to 2003's SimCity 4 , courtesy of the ever-growing Network Addon Mod . NAM is entering its 10th year and still adding new features to the game's transportation system. Lots of them.
The Network Addon Mod is all about giving you options -- tons of options -- on how to thoughtfully and efficiently design your city's transportation system. Chacha chaudhary comics pdf in bengali. Some of the elements it adds are major, like massive highway systems, high speed rail, and working canals, and some are small, like turning lanes, nicer curved roads, and elevated pedestrian walkways. Finally, the mod fixes bugs and improves the game's traffic systems with better pathfinding for your tiny citizens.
This latest update, version 32, promises some exciting new features. From the mod page:
'The NAM Elevated Viaducts for Roads, One-Way Roads, and Avenues are now available in a draggable form, at both Level 1 (7.5 meter) and Level 2 (15 meter) heights, complete with FLEX Height and On-Slope transitions.'
I have no earthly clue what that means. Also:
'Transit station functionality has been further improved, including the beginning of the implementation of the SLURP, which will gradually raise all transit stations to NAM standards.'
Again, no idea what they're talking about. Frankly, most of the descriptions from the mod are completely baffling to me. However! You don't need to fully understand every last detail of the mod in order to enjoy it. Here's one teeny example of how it became useful in my own game. In a primitive SimCity 4 metropolis, you'd see something like this where the train tracks and the streets intersect:
Lame! Cars have to stop every time a train comes along. What is this, the Middle Ages?
That's more like it. NAM adds oodles of options for underpasses, overpasses, and intersections, allowing your SimCitizens to quickly and efficiently drive from their homes to the front door of your mansion so they can complain about the deadly pollution and lack of police stations or whatever is currently bothering them. Even more importantly, you can see just how well the new items fit into the game, both functionally and aesthetically. None of the parts and pieces look like they don't belong in the game.
Please note, the next two images are not from my own SimCity, which is fairly SimCrummy, but from the NAM wiki and the ModDB page, where people actually know what they're doing and can build things that are actually pleasant to look at.
A big focus of NAM has been the Real Highway System , based on a feature Maxis intended to include in the game but never did. It allows for bigger, beefier highways that allow greater speeds and vehicle capacity. These highways can range from simple two-lane affairs to massive, sprawling, ten-lane asphalt rivers. The mod has a myriad of parts and pieces to help you build intricate networks of highways and interchanges.
The NAM mod also includes an entire neighborhood's worth of plugins. The High Speed Rail plugin modernizes your city with both ground-based and elevated bullet trains, and provides several stations to choose from, including a massive multipurpose station that includes bus and regular rail service. The Ground Light Rail plugin lets you add passenger trams to your city streets, which run on a different network of rails than the subway does.
Image credit .
Even if you're not looking to build a massively complex city, there's tons of little items in the mod to enhance your experience, and everything I've played with is not only functional but blends perfectly into the look of the game. And, as you can see, even a decade later, the game itself still looks fantastic. I've heard from a few sources that SimCity 4 doesn't run that well on newer systems, but on Windows 7 I didn't experience any crashes, even with the mod installed.
If NAM has a single drawback, its that there are so many new parts and pieces added that it can be hard find what you're looking for, and sometimes it can be hard to even know precisely what you're looking for. If you feel a little lost, as I did, there's a forum with all sorts of how-tos and tutorials .
(Header image credit .)
Installation : It's super easy. Download here , then extract and run the .exe file. (A window will pop up, telling you it's using something called 'Cleanitol' which sounds slightly alarming, as if it is wiping your hard drive clean. It's isn't. It's searching for outdated NAM files and will update any it finds.) Once installed, launch the game normally, and you'll find all the parts and pieces in the construction menus.
I want to upgrade my city's bus network to a subway network. How do I locate all of my bus stations so I can replace them?
MaxpmMaxpm
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2 Answers
One way you can see them easily: Use the 'Traffic' data view under Mayor mode.
In the top left of the view there is a switch between showing traffic by volume and by congestion. Choose by volume and your bus and subway stations will show up in green.
KrypticKryptic
Do the same thing -- Choose by volume- then choose bus, than switch back to congestion. next scroll in and scroll through your town. It does not show bus stops when set to volume.
Chunky MunkyChunky Munky
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Posted by6 years ago
Archived
In the pursuit of information on how mass transit worked, I've found that MaxisGuillaume who wrote the original code has given some advice, that I've compiled here for easy access to others.
Traffic Pathing Algorithm
Indeed :) Ok, now take your road network, and imagine there are dozens and dozens of D* graphs getting built all the time, one graph per destination type. Some of those are pedestrian destinations (like a house, workplace, shop, etc..) some are 'transit' pedestrian destinations (like a bus stop that will lead you to a house, a street car stop that will lead you to a workplace, etc..). Those are used by the pedestrians and the stops to figure out who should go where. Then there's a bunch of sets that are used by the transit vehicles themselves, like 'pick up shuttle passengers', 'pick up train passengers at a neighbor's', 'drop off streetcar passengers near a workplace', 'drop off muni bus passengers near a home', and finally, 'go from stop to stop'. Whenever a transit vehicle makes a stop, it drops off all the passengers that can walk to their destination from it, then pick-up passengers. In most cases, if there is still room for passengers, the vehicle will try to go to stops that have people waiting. If it's full (or with a small chance if there's still room) then it will go straight to the first valid drop off point in a list, based on its passengers desired destination. If it's empty, then there's a chance it will drive at random from stop to stop, until it picks up people. Hope this helps figuring out how to play the transit game! [Source]
Zoning
If you use the guides, then you should get the right amount of space for back to back medium and high density buildings (they have the same depth). Sometimes it helps to be zoomed in when you draw your roads, as the guides tend to be followed more precisely than if you were zoomed out. [Source]
Reset Traffic
Turbo C, as well as a splendid IDE for developers that uses the C language, also allows you to compile code files programmed in that language. Download c++ terbaru.
Also, when you load into a city, all the cars, pedestrians, trucks, buses, etc.. start from the unit that originally emitted them again -- their location on the map isn't saved. [Source]
Mixed Zoning
Do a search for Horizontal Mixed Use and Neighborhood Commercial, those are the two types of mixed use zoning the game supports. [Source]
Work Requests
I wrote the original code, but another scripter took over after I started working on the public transit piece. Work buildings send requests to residential buildings at 6am and 6pm (for night shift/continuous workplaces), but only for a portion of their workforce, say about 1/3. Neighbors will also call for workers at those times. This is so you get the rush hour effect. People will decide to walk or drive based on the distance between the workplace that requested them and where they live. If you build your city so you tend to mix zones, then you can effectively create a walkable city. Then for a few more hours, the rest of the workforce will trickle in. You can speed up that process by building public transit. [Source]
Street Car Design
OP is definitely on the right track in being disciplined and building his streetcar system as 1 line per depot, as opposed to a spaghetti dish. [Source]
Don't place your streetcar depot so close to an intersection. Seriously, don't. Windows defender offline for vista. [Source]
Bus System
Keep buses on avenues and off smaller streets. Place bus stops on both sides of the road (so they're paired) to limit how many U-turns buses have to make. [Source]
You need to balance the number of buses you place with the number of stops as well as the complexity of your network. Not enough buses, and people wait a long time. Too many buses, and your streets get flooded by them. [Source]
Sims don't know which way the bus is going, they just know that if they go to this stop, then they'll be able to reach their eventual destination. [Source]
People will walk to park & ride, yes. [Source]
You should also put the pairs farther apart from each other, each stop can cover about 400 meters each direction. [Source]
Eventually the bus will go back to the garage, at which point the Sim may walk back home (or take transit back home) [Source]
62 comments
I want to upgrade my city's bus network to a subway network. How do I locate all of my bus stations so I can replace them?
MaxpmMaxpm
84322 gold badges1111 silver badges3939 bronze badges
Simcity 4 Bus Stop Placement2 Answers
One way you can see them easily: Use the 'Traffic' data view under Mayor mode.
In the top left of the view there is a switch between showing traffic by volume and by congestion. Choose by volume and your bus and subway stations will show up in green.
KrypticKryptic
Do the same thing -- Choose by volume- then choose bus, than switch back to congestion. next scroll in and scroll through your town. It does not show bus stops when set to volume.
Simcity 4 Bus Stops Mod
Chunky MunkyChunky Munky
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged simcity-4 or ask your own question.
Archived from groups: alt.games.simcity (More info?)
Ahoy all again, Now my city is looking good. I'm starting to get close to 80000 people and it's growing reasonably well. I'm getting a BIG issue with commute time. In a lot of places, I have tonnes of bus stops, lots of excellent train service, several ferry terminals, and handy access to a motorway for just about everyone (all avenues connect to a motorway at some point). But, most of the places I'm finding are getting abandoned due to 'Long' commute times, which is a major pain. I remember a while ago there was a MOD file you could download to fix this problem. I did so, and immediately my avenues became completely congested, to the point where they were useless. There was another one I found a few years ago, but that was before I had Rush Hour. I did find the 'Network Addon' mod on www.simtropolis.com, but upon unzipping that, there are LOTS of mods in there. Which one do I install to simply fix the long commute time, and just have my Sims commute with ease? They seem to be rather pathetic when it comes to using public transport too, and if something is more than a few squares away, they simply won't use it, which is plain annoying and totally unfair.. Anyone got any suggestions? Am I on the right track with the Network Addon mod? Thanks, Jason. Comments are closed.
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