I'm totally lost on this issue. One of the tutorials points at the rule:

2*Nbr TS2 squares + 1 TS2 square

I really need an example. So let's say I want to build a road for a 2x3 lot, without any spare road on the sides. That road is two squares long in TS2, how many squares should it be in SC4 to reflect that? According to the rule, a two squares road is impossible. If I build two squares, it will become 5 squres in TS2. And if I build 1 square, it will become 3 squares in TS2!

Another issue that I wanted to ask about is how to import a TS2 terrain into SC4. I planned to learn answers to my questions by looking at some default TS2 terrains in SC4 originally, but that didn't work out. I created a folder for TS2 terrains, placed some .sc4 files from TS2, but the game can't see them. I click on the smallest-sized space in the region, click on "import city", and in the pop-up window I can only see the folder name. The folder isn't expandable, so I can't choose a terrain from it. For some reason SC4 doesn't recognize default TS2 terrains.

I have a conversion chart for SC4 to TS2 somewhere. I'll try to find it for you.

Yes, you are correct. Some sizes are difficult or impossible to get in TS2, because EA decided to do something stupid when they set up the conversion from SC4 to TS2. I don't know any way around these restrictions. You'll probably just have to fool around a bit and see what you can manage.

If you have an SC4 file from TS2 which you want to edit in SC4, you could try these instructions:
http://www.modthesims.info/d/showpo...389&postcount=4

The instructions are for modifying the terrain on an existing neighborhood, but you can ignore the final HoodReplace steps if you're just trying to create a new SC4 file.

You should be aware that some SC4 files were created with SimCity 4 Rush Hour / Deluxe and will require that EP. If you don't have Rush Hour or Deluxe, you will not be able to see those SC4 files. I did help someone convert an SC4 from Rush Hour to SimCity 4 base game once, so I can try to find the instructions if required; however, we just copied the terrain itself, and not the roads, trees, etc.

[Update:]

Neighborly Sims seems to have lost the thread with the conversions, but here's the text from the conversion thread:

Last edited by Mootilda : 24th Jan 2012 at 05:39 PM.

Thank you!

Strangely, Bluewater didn't open for me, even though I do have Deluxe with Rush Hour. But some other miscellaneous terrains from TS2 did open without a problem. Although I must say that I didn't learn anything vital from them, for example, from looking at the terrain with ocean it isn't possible to figure out how the ocean was made and how it was calculated where to make it to enable certain beach lot sizes. That's something my terrain lacks for now, I already recreated all the roads, but sadly it requires an ocean at one side and space for the docks and the beach. If there is a tutorial or guide that mentions or explains how to enable placing beach lots specifically and calculate which size they're going to be, I'd be very grateful.

The chart is most helpful. It's sad that some sizes can't be recreated, for example, the smallest one being 3x3 is still too big. But now I understand why Maxis' premade hoods have houses so spread out, unlike in real life. I always thought it strange that they created so much unused and even more unusable space. I guess they simply had to spread out houses like that, because otherwise that unusable space would stand out too much. In my playable hood all houses are next to each other, and there's no spaces between them neither on the sides or on the back, now that feels good

If you place two roads right next to each other in SC4, you'll get 1 tile between them in TS2.

If you have FreeTime or later, then you're probably better off using the terrain editing in TS2 to fix the beach areas.

I'd also like to point out that SimCity 4 is a terrible terrain editor. When I'm working on SC4 terrains, I use the SC4Terraformer to give me much more control over elevations. It even allows you to set the elevation on a per-tile basis. Note that you'll have to sign up at the site to download the program, and it only works on Windows XP.
http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_f....php?lotGET=731

I tried editing Bluewater Village and had no problems, although the name of the city is "New City", not "Bluewater".

Last edited by Mootilda : 25th Jan 2012 at 09:43 PM.

Hello, I'm back with Qs.

Mootilda, your mini-tutorial ( http://www.modthesims.info/d/showpo...389&postcount=4 ) mentions the procedure of editing a .sc4 file, right? I'm I missing sth? These are the steps you follow to edit a map.

Last edited by MAB-2000 : 1st Mar 2012 at 04:10 PM.

I'm sorry, I don't understand the question.

It might help if you were to use real words. What is "Qs"? What is "sth"?

Is there a difference between a map and an SC4 file? If so, please explain the difference.

I'm sorry :'-(

Well:
Qs: "QUESTIONs"
sth "something"

I don't think there is a difference between "map" and ".sc4". But I'm gonna use .sc4 from now on.

So... what was the question again? Am I being really dense?

No, not really. If you were obtuse, you wouldn't been able to answer any of my Qs [ ] (Ok, ok, no more abbrevation forms) , questions.

My question:

Does the steps you mentioned under the "Making changes to the terrain:" section differ from the standard process of editing a .sc4 (say a downloaded one)?

Those steps should work for editing any small city SC4 file, no matter where the SC4 file came from. You'll need a different config.bmp for medium or large cities, but any city associated with the Sims should be small.

Does the config map really matters? The only restriction is the one that you should make your map (I'm sorry) in the smallest squere in SC4

As long as you have a city in your region which can be overwritten and is of the appropriate size, there is no problem. However, it's important not to give people too much information in a tutorial. I provided people with a simple way to edit an SC4 file. This is not the only way, but it will work.

If you don't want to use my technique, you'll need to deal with the "reconcile edges" issue. There may be other issues that my technique addresses as well.

Since you're working on SC4 files, I thought that I might also mention a useful plugin for SimCity 4:
http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/fi...dge-height-mod/

This mod will remove the game's insistence on raising the terrain when placing a bridge. That raising of the terrain may be useful for SC4 play, but it's just annoying when creating terrains for the Sims.

Last edited by Mootilda : 2nd Mar 2012 at 04:44 PM.