(Idea) Road Raise/Lower tool should be changed (minor change, major improvement)

[raresteak]

Idea title:
3D Road Building



Current road height tool:

• Press UP or DOWN to raise or lower roads at big increments.

Proposed road height tool:

• When you hold MODIFIER, your road is locked in place (on X-Y-coordinate) and now moving your mouse adjusts road's Z-coordinate (height).
• When you release MODIFIER, you return back to normally adjusting X-Y coordinates, but with the Z-coordinate you've just set.

Edit: Shortened post.

 

[raresteak]

More road-building related ideas:
Didn't want to compromise format and length of OP so I'll dump a list of other road ideas here instead of creating new thread(s):

-

100% no-snapping mode:
Currently even with snap-to-grid turned off, roads still snap to grids when you join them together. Anyone who's spent enough time building with curved and free-form roads knows this. You want to join this road at this exact spot, but you can't, and can join on either this grid or that, and not in between.

If you don't know what I'm talking about: Create a road. Now create another road that is about 90° to that first road, and almost touching it. Now try to join it at different, precise, spots. You can't. You can only join it to a point on a the zonal grid. Here's an album for anyone who wants a visualisation: https://imgur.com/a/PJhNd

Now try that again, except this time use a highway for the first road. You'll be able to join the second road anywhere on it. It's the zoning grids that prevent you from joining roads anywhere for normal roads.

Build or extend roads to any length:
Currently, there's a minimum length when contructing a new road or extending one. I'd like to extend some roads just an inch or two, instead of the currently set minimum that is quite a lot.

Support column flexibility and control:
Trying to run a road that's parallel or almost-parallel over another? You can't. You need a support column every set distance in this game. That makes sense, but if this was flexible and controllable, we'll be freer to build stacks of roads and highway ramps like these (imgur link).

-

More common ideas:

U-turns:
Micromanagement feature. I'd like to allow U-turns at some intersections. I'd like to place U-turns anywhere (creates road divider on 6-lane making a short 4-lane section).

Pedestrian crossings:
Micromanagement feature again. Even more micromanagement: let us control if it's traffic light controlled (like this (imgur link)) or right-of-way to pedestrians (like this (imgur link)).

 

[raresteak]

bump

 

[Inge Jones]

Strongly disagree with this proposal!!! CSL has the most accurate and small-incremental road elevation tool I have ever used in my life. Please do NOT EVER change it!!!!!

 

[Tetrinity]

Strongly disagree with this proposal!!! CSL has the most accurate and small-incremental road elevation tool I have ever used in my life. Please do NOT EVER change it!!!!!

I... really don't understand where you're coming from with this. The current system only allows set increments; the proposed system allows any increment. This is strictly better according to your own metric.

I'd definitely prefer a modifier key to adjust road height with the mouse - Page Up and Page Down are very far away from any other key used by the game, and I find them awkward to use. Perhaps a second modifier could allow the height to snap to the current grid?

All of the other ideas sound great too.

 

[GMeador]

The problem with making 'whatever' road height adjustments is you may not make road overpasses tall enough for traffic/trains to get under, or unnecessarily tall.
Sorry. I'm not into making roller coasters for cars.
There's already many restrictions built into the game (from lot sizes on). Fixed road heights and connections are done that way for a reason and they're just something you should be able to deal with.

I do agree that 'page up' and 'page down' were 'inconvenient'. You can, however, 'rebind' them. I changed mine so "Shift W" and "Shift S" replace them. Just click on them and press the key combo you want (just be sure and check the other key-mapping tabs to make sure the key(s) you want aren't already taken).

 

[raresteak]

The problem with making 'whatever' road height adjustments is you may not make road overpasses tall enough for traffic/trains to get under, or unnecessarily tall.
Sorry. I'm not into making roller coasters for cars.
There's already many restrictions built into the game (from lot sizes on). Fixed road heights and connections are done that way for a reason and they're just something you should be able to deal with.

I do agree that 'page up' and 'page down' were 'inconvenient'. You can, however, 'rebind' them. I changed mine so "Shift W" and "Shift S" replace them. Just click on them and press the key combo you want (just be sure and check the other key-mapping tabs to make sure the key(s) you want aren't already taken).

I have no problem with PGUP and PGDOWN. I've rebinded almost everything in my settings. I was just making a point about the increments being limiting.

I'm also not intending to create roller coaster roads. I just want a better road tool. At the moment, people are using workarounds to build to precise heights. See here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkyli...o_make_a_roadramp_at_any_elevation_credit_to/

Also, I don't see what the problem is if they're not tall enough. There's already collision detection for heights of roads. If you're too close, just raise or lower, as in the current system. Why wouldn't you be able to do the same with this new, better system?

I... really don't understand where you're coming from with this. The current system only allows set increments; the proposed system allows any increment. This is strictly better according to your own metric.

I'd definitely prefer a modifier key to adjust road height with the mouse - Page Up and Page Down are very far away from any other key used by the game, and I find them awkward to use. Perhaps a second modifier could allow the height to snap to the current grid?

All of the other ideas sound great too.

My initial reaction is that guy's joking. Can't be 100% sure, though.

 

[FX2K]

I must admit the snapping (even with it off) can get a little annoying. If snapping is off then it should remain off and not still snap to certain things.
As for the height, I would be just as happy with an additional increment, i.e instead of 1, 2, 3 having 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 etc

Visually the first height is far too high IMO, I use the same approach as mentioned above to get 1/2 height mainly because it looks so much better.