Questions about the Map editor

[bbm54]

Hi Giladteller,

are you sure? I thought you pay 20$ per road square, which means 4 tiles.

By the way, the 3 metres per tile give a disappointing maximum value for a playable map: 1280x1280 means 3,8 kilometres in square for the big maps. As I noticed, the 1280 refer to single tiles....
If you are building a real map, this is quite a strict limitation.

But I am really a bit confused, because the cities like Vienna, Helsinki and Berlin look quite larger than 3,8km cutoffs...

[giladteller]

Yes, one road square is 4 tiles and it cost 20.
The cities might look large, but they are much smaller in the game than in real life, many small and side streets are actually missing. You can also notice that the amount of citizens in the cities is much smaller than the real cities.
The fact that 1 tile is 3 meters is according to the developers.
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...1#post12375241

[bbm54]

Yeah, I read it...anyway, 4 Kilometres is usually downtown... I suffer from it, because the larger maps are not playable...

[knewt02]

Hello all - am struggling with airport construction in editor. All taxiways have been capped and all building types placed but it's still not coming to life. I notice someone earlier on here mentioned that runways must have two exit/entrance points so will try that now and let you all know - thankyou to that person for posting!! I have a large runway with multiple entrance/exit points and a smaller one with only one, so will modify now and let you know if it works.

Thanks for the all the advice so far - keep posting guys and gals!

P.S. While I'm here, I'd also like to commend the devs and reiterate what everyone here already says. This game is fantastic. Not only have I already spent hours creating transport routes, I'm now just getting into the editor side of the game and I love it. Can't wait for expansions and mods re more stuff to place but as a bare bones game, this is truely brilliant. I wish all pc games makers were as conscientious and detail-oriented as the folks at Paradox.

The only thing that did disappoint was the lack of advertising/awareness around this game. When travesties like the poorly constructed and full 'o' bugs 'Sims 3' range even gets on TV, I only found out about this game because I stumbled across it at the back of a shop. I know it's all about money, but this game deserves more exposure! Also, am finding it really difficult to find a hard-copy of the Tokyo expansion or the expansion that has new vehicle designs in it. Does such a thing exist or can you only download it at present?

This is one game I'd happily spend hundreds of pounds on, so keep those expansions coming!!

Sorry for long post - I'm just SO HAPPY!!

[giladteller]

There is no hard copy of the DLC and Tokyo expansion.
The hrad copy of the game is for steam, so you can buy the DLC and expansion on steam.

[douglasrac]

@knewt02: Good that you are enjoying the game! Welcome to the forum.

Making airports is a real pain. I'm making a map myself and the airport is the worst part ever. Not enjoying.
You need to measure correctly first, because any modifications will ruin everything. The taxiways path and the crossings do not have the same size.
I only manage to make my airport work with a large terminal, a control tower, a hangar and runaways (must be long runaway). The taxiways must connect the large terminal and the runaway (not sure if its really necessary both sides).
Mine wasn't working and I learned here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBaowI5Hojg

[knewt02]

Tell me about it...

OK, so some general rules in case you didn't know already:

Runways must be a certain length in order to operate properly. If anyone knows what this rule is, please share!

It seems like you must have a control tower for each runway.

Each runway must have at least two exit/entry points onto a taxiway.

That's generally all there is to it but it can take some planning space-wise. As long as you have your terminal, control tower and a decent length of runway, you should be set to go.

I am working on a double runway setup at present, which is how I found out about the control tower per runway thing. I also had to lengthen both of them considerably as planes were landing right near the edge and taking off from the taxiway!!

Also, if you are bothered about the airplane animations being absolutely correct, it seems to be that you need one runway for landing and a seperate one for taking off. Have been watching mine for a while and with just one runway, the planes seem to taxi into the terminal, park then fade, then another one lands and so on. With two runways, they land, park, then go over the second runway to take off again. It's pretty cool but the editor should really come with some instructions!

Happy building all.

EDIT: Thanks for the link douglas rac. Any tips appreciated!

[knewt02]

There is no hard copy of the DLC and Tokyo expansion.
The hrad copy of the game is for steam, so you can buy the DLC and expansion on steam.

Thanks giladteller. That's a real shame. I like to have physical copies of disks where possible. Ho-hum.

[Auri_N]

Does anybody know if you can upload maps you have made for others to download? Like you can with plots in The Sims 3? As I think this would be a good way to expand the amount of maps you can play on.

[giladteller]

There are a lot of places you can upload your maps.
You can upload it here: http://www.citiesinmotionexchange.com/
You can also give links to your maps in the mods sub-forum (you need register your game first)
You can link your map in the wiki: http://citiesinmotion.wikispaces.com/Maps
And in just about any fan site: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...-Fan-Site-List

[willb2107]

Can someone tell me how you do those 'I need you to build me a line from my house to my daughters school' or 'build a line to my farm' popups that you occasionally get. How do you do these? Thanks

[giladteller]

You need to build one line connecting those places, no transfers.
Make sure both places are inside the stop radius, you can see those places highlighted on the minimap and on the main view.
Check if the mission asks for a specific type of transport (metro, tram, etc).

[willb2107]

edit: How do you make a line in Map Editor?

I can make stops but no lines..(the hotkey for Lines "L" doesnt work and I cant find how to make them)

Thanks

[TH1]

you can't build lines in the map editor.

[douglasrac]

edit: How do you make a line in Map Editor?

I can make stops but no lines..(the hotkey for Lines "L" doesnt work and I cant find how to make them)

Thanks

If you want to distribute a map with lines on it, just distribute as a saved game. Make the map in the map editor, then start it in Sandbox mode, make all the lines you want, save it. In order to keep some amount of money, start with more money and use the extra to build the lines, so at the end will be the same amount as any other map.

[naughtyshapes]

notice that bus stop coverage is about 8 road squares or 33 small squares, which gives a coverage of only 99 game metres.

given that real world coverage is accepted to be about 400m or a quarter mile to a stop, we can convert game metres (3 per small tile) into real metres at about a 4 to 1 ratio ( 99*4 = 396 ~ close enough to 400)

note that this means the small road would be a massive 48m wide in real life, and the narrowest house a whopping 36m wide! no wonder you can't fit in any small detail or side streets in your plans.

Hi Giladteller,

are you sure? I thought you pay 20$ per road square, which means 4 tiles.

By the way, the 3 metres per tile give a disappointing maximum value for a playable map: 1280x1280 means 3,8 kilometres in square for the big maps. As I noticed, the 1280 refer to single tiles....
If you are building a real map, this is quite a strict limitation.

But I am really a bit confused, because the cities like Vienna, Helsinki and Berlin look quite larger than 3,8km cutoffs...

[naughtyshapes]

you can do this but if you had played on and tested it you would see that sooner or later traffic enters from both ends at once, and when they meet, cims will stop and wait ages until they eventually timeout and fade and teleport to their destination ... meanwhile the gridlock builds up.

I quickly tried it.

You can really make streets by on-ramps for expressgates. Yes, you cannot build there a stop or tram track, but BUS can go there and I presume, citizens' cars will also. So now you can build normal large block and some ramps connecting opposite streets to make small streets. It is mostly eyecandy (that those streets has no white painting in the middle etc., just look like streets in residential areas), yes, but can be useable because of the cars going only in one direction in this street.

Just don't forget to lay down some concrete or asphalt or bricks on the ground under the on-ramp to better look.

[knewt02]

Highway(motorway) construction in map editor.

Just some general rules for noobs (like me) who didn't know already.

On/off ramps will only be "one way" if they start or terminate on the actual highway itself. Traffic direction on these ramps also depends on the direction in which they join/leave the highway. As has been stated above, if you construct off ramps that do not make contact with a highway, traffic will try and enter them from both directions and just get stuck in the middle.

Where large traffic jams on highways are concerned, I have found the best solution so far is to construct "slip roads" from the high congestion areas to other areas of the city that are densely populated/business/industry based areas. It doesnt really matter about their length, as long as at least one of the ends feeds from/to the highway. For example, I have one feeding off of the highway that runs through the centre of my city, crosses a river alongside the actual highway, and then spurs off into the centre of the industrial area on the other side of the river. I have a mirror slip road taking vehicles from this area back into the centre of town via the highway where the first slip road exits on the other side. You can even "stack" these slip roads on top of eachother if you plan and construct very carefully. These slip roads look really good running along side the highway and can even be built above the central reservation of the highway itself. This method has really helped alleviate traffic flow on highways in my city.

Junctions between highways - this is where highway construction gets really interesting! So, you have two highways crossing eachother and you want to connect them with off/on ramps. The best advice I can give you is to approach construction from the pov of a vehicle on the highway. I.e. you are here and you want to get there. There is a brilliant sticky on here about highway junctions and construction in general but as a rule of thumb, you want ramps to take traffic off and on for each lane of your highway and for every possible direction. For example, an off ramp from the right hand lane of highway A to the right hand lane of highway B is great, but then vehicles will also want to get to the left hand lane of highway B from the right hand lane of highway A, especially if there are no other general city roads around for them to connect to from the right hand lane of highway B. I can't post images currently and don't want to confuse the issue further so will shut up now.

I can also recommend sinking your highways down a little below the level of ordinary street roads, as this makes it easier to build bridges over them but also to tunnel under important building or areas that the highway may come into contact with. Where two highways meet and cross over, it's also useful as it means you dont have to raise the second highway too high above the first. Similarly, slightly raising a highway can also be useful in that ordinary streets can then be routed underneath it via tunnels or actually building highway bridges over normal roads. Depends on the area and the look you want to achieve. Personally, I prefer the highway to be set apart from ordinary streets and clearly defined as "highway", which is another reason I do it like this.

Other than that, I have noticed that vehicles tend to use a highway rather than a normal road where possible. For example, I built a normal road tunnel under a river connecting a residential and industrial area on either side of the river. I also constructed a highway that crossed the river a few metres down from this tunnel. Although some used this tunnel, the majority crossed on the highway, as I think the AI looks for optimum journey speeds, rather than shortest distances - could be wrong but it's just an observation.

All common sense stuff but it's stuff I had to learn for myself and thought it might help someone.

[Baro]

I haven't played CiM for a while but I heard the editor has been improved with the timeline option finally. I got the latest patch, installed it, opened up the editor, and I can't seem to find the new timeline options. Help!

[co_damsku]

Unfortunately, the timeline option has not been added.