Three Rivers Region

[Livin in Sim]

Hi, David,

Nice background with the tree descriptions and history of 3RR.  Too bad about the smorgasbord tax--did the war start with the rebels, disguised as Chippewa Indians, sneaking into the all-you-can-eat establishments, seizing the vats of steaming food, and dumping the contents into the Hotham Inlet Harbor?  Maybe that was when they first came up with the recipe for poutine?  Oh, maybe I'm confused with some other history...

And each country thought the territory belonged to the other?  Too bad that can't happen in the Middle East...

Well, it all "came out" well and humorously for those of us who follow the 3RR saga.  Here's to poor deBeauville Grand, taken young by pride of flatulence, a lesson best accepted by us all.

--Liv

[SIMMANIA]

When I hate Poutine today, I thought of 3RR in my mind ! 

Nice landscapes !

[dedgren]

I posted this over at ST earlier today in response to a question asked in the thread, but thought it might be of interest here as well.
__________________________

On the 8th of this month, my friend Grneyes78 asked

David, somewhere in the beginning of this CJ you mention setting the simoleans to a couple of billion. How do you that?

Well...

...you have questions...

   ...we have answers!

First off, let me note one more time my position on cheating adjusting game parameters.

I think it's unfortunate that, with respect to Sim City, Maxis/EA ever promoted the notion that the ability to modify certain game settings was "cheating" in the first place.  Why do I say this?  Well, after all, those folks were the ones who used the term- check it out in the little booklet you got when you bought the game.  The way I see it, in order to accomplish the act of "cheating," someone or something needs to get cheated.  In SC4- who or what?

The game is non-competitive (oh sure, there's scenario play, but who has ever bothered with that?).  It's not, like...

...the one with the most simoleans...WINS!

I think, by definition, you probably can't cheat any third person in any non-competitive enterprise.  So that leaves two questions- first, are you cheating something when you enter a cheat code?  This necessarily raises the issue of laws and/or rules.  I think it goes without saying that there is probably no way, unless illegal copying of the software is involved, that you can play Sim City that is against the law.  So that leaves rules.  Has anyone ever seen any hard and fast rules applying to how SC4 is played?

? ? ?

I didn't think so.

So, if there's no rules, you can't possibly break them, whether by cheating or in some other manner.

The second question is: Are you cheating yourself when you use a SC4 "cheat?"  Well, who do you think is best positioned to answer that question?  I can only speak for myself, but I play SC4 to recreate.  That in and of itself doesn't answer the question, because I recognize other things as "cheating" while engaged in such.  Cheating at solitaire, for example, by turning over a card when I'm not otherwise entitled.  Doing so (often enough) will let you "win" when you otherwise wouldn't.  But that one's easy.  There are widely agreed upon rules for how solitaire and its variations are played.  Cheating offends those rules, so we're back to question one in that situation.

Let's take a different example- building a house of cards.  I would consider gluing the cards together in order to create a taller or more elaborate house to be cheating.  I would never do that.  Now, I think it could be agreed that there are no rules, formal or otherwise, that are generally agreed upon for building hoses of cards.  It's not (to my knowledge, anyway) a competitive sport.  It is probably the epitome of completely trivial personal recreation.  Yet I feel strongly that the use of glue would be cheating.  The relevant question at this point is, why?

After giving that some thought, I can say for sure that the answer to why is because I feel that gluing the cards together would remove all enjoyment from the enterprise.  The outcome would be foreordained.  With strong enough glue (and, I suppose, cards) you could build a card house that you could reside in, at least until it rained steadily for a few hours.  There's no challenge, no sense of accomplishment.

My sense of challenge and accomplishment when I play SC4 doesn't come from fending off ruination because I'm out of simoleans, or from seeing how many simoleans I have at the end of the session.  I feel good about playing the game when I create something that I think is nifty, or nice to look at, or that gives other folks some degree of enjoyment. I'll set the game up in any way I would want, to include starting out with a billion or so simoleans gained through the "cheat" codes, to the extent that doing so best allows me to accomplish these things.

So, now let me answer the question on the table.

I used to use Daeley's budget adjustment banks [linkie] to get additional funds.  They're pretty cool, but since I've become aware of the "Moolah" cheat game parameter adjustment code, I just cut right to the chase and use it.

So let's look at an example.  Here, 3RR Quad 122's treasury only has a piddly 64,000 or so simoleans on hand.



But we want to do big things...

...expensive big things...

So, we'll bring up the cheat game adjustment parameter input box by pressing the [ Ctrl ] and [ X ] keys at the same time.  When the box appears, we type the code Moolah followed by a space and the amount of additional funding we desire, in this case fifty million simoleans.



After pressing [ Enter ], we see the following.



Oh, man!  Already spent 172 simoleans.  And that's a heck of a transaction fee, the 63,933 simoleans I had originally have disappeared!  Kind of like the ATM at the corner 7-Eleven [linkie].

What the code does is adjust whatever you have in the treasury to the amount you enter, and the game continues from there.

Now, if you are interested in other game adjustment parameters, I commend your attention to this thread [linkie], where Game Code God Buggi has made available to us the Extra Cheats DLL [linkie].  The thread explains all.

Later.

[Yoman]

  Amazing work. I love the region you located 3RR in, suites it well. Now I know your a very busy person but as a member of the SCJU I'm extending an invite, I Know its not for everyone though.

[Fred_Ginger]

Game parameter adjustment code?

Thanks for that, I never consider it "cheating" when I use the "Cousin Vinnie" ordinance and now I know what to call it!

[emilin]

I prefer the park that autosets the budget to 1 mill. It goes "katching!" which is a bonus.

[dedgren]

I've made so many "text-heavy" posts over the last little bit that I though everyone might just be up for a little bit of pure

Shameless Eye Candy

I've been using Baronet Island, a mile and one half long by quarter-mile wide island in the lower Grand River



as a testbed for sharpening my tree placement skills over the past few days.  Here's some pics of the results.

Boot'n her up...


A level 2 view.


The south end of the island.

Summer.


Early fall.


High fall.


Winter.


Mid island.

Spring.


Summer.


Early fall 01.


Early Fall 02.


High fall 01.


High fall 02.


Late fall.


Winter.


North end - fall.


Closer in.


Up the road a bit.


Road junction.


Bridge abutment.


Back to the south end - winter.


I think I'm getting better at this, no?

Later.

[thundercrack83]

Well, I didn't think you were "bad" at it to begin with! Baronet Island looks fantastic, especially in the early fall with the yellow and the red trees coming through. I'm also a fan of the seemingly random shot of the bridge abutment, too! I'm happy to see some of the transportation network getting started.

I also happen to agree wholeheartedly with your position on "cheating" in SC4. It's all a matter of your goals. If your goal is to play the game and see how well you can do without using outside methods to acquire funds, then using a money cheat would be considered cheating. Even then, I'm reminded of what Jesse "The Body" Ventura used to say...

"Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!"

Anyway, great update, and I'll be looking forward to more...

[Traff]

Very nice treed areas. Natural looking.  
I never got to follow 3RR at ST.
Might start that beast one day.

More Eye Candy!!




.

[threestooges]

Excellent randomization of the trees. Was this accomplished through your lots (if so, great job) or did you place them individually? I particularly like the varying densities across the island. Too often my forests end up being a more or less uniform density. Congratulations on setting the game a step farther ahead.

[emilin]

I'm guessing those are the lots. It looks awesome, and it was an especially smart move to make them interact with the roads in that way (Are they farm lots? It would be really neat to know how you did that since my custom lots always turn up with pink sidewalks).

[pvarcoe]

I'm with thundercrack83. You were good to begin with. These trees look real good to me.
I really nice series of shots. Strangely, I like the winter shots best. Maybe it just reminds me of home.
That bridge abutment is very smooth. You avoided that shart incline right before the bridge edge very well.

An interesting and realistic layout of road running off of the main street (or the other way around, I always get streets and roads confused). The layout is exactly how I would imagine an island like that would have. Do you plan a little development along the spurs?

Phil

[bat]

Very great pictures! And nice season-changes!

[asturianu]

Great work, Dacid. The river and trees views are amazing.
So, with the last link you gave us, we can use the cheat modd?     
If yes, thanks a lot! I needed this one!
Great work as always, David!

Cristian

[exodus101]

Hey David,

Well, I wasn't planning on using seasonal trees in a new region I'm building but you've certainly peaked my curiosity!  The eye candy looks great from spring to winter.  I especially like the groves of trees running along beside many of your roads...very picturesque.  Keep up the good work!

-Stephen

[Ajax]

The seasonal trees are a beautiful enhancement to an already beautiful landscape! 

I only consider it cheating if I feel guilty about something I have done in SC4.  Strangely, I have never felt guilty! 

[dedgren]

As I get ready to commence the collaboration phase of 3RR, which will let you participate in the development of the region, I am working on cleaning up a few loose ends.  The first of these has to do with the place-name maps I developed and posted over at ST for each quadrant of the region.  That was done in four different posts across several pages.  I now put them here in the same place for the first time.  You can click on any of the map images for a larger view of that quadrant.

3RR-NW [linkie]


3RR-SW [linkie]


3RR-SE [linkie]


3RR-NE [linkie]


Please note that I plan to redo the NE map to map it consistent with the others- it's on my list of to-dos.  Again, click on any map image to see the easy-to-read version, which will open in a new window.

More later today.

[bat]

wonderful regionoverviews!

[your_adress_here]

I love 3RR! By far my favorite map to play on. My main (and only city, so far) is on quadrant 170. 

[petercintn]

Heck of a project.  Still looking good.  That's a lot of research you've done.  I enjoyed the classes.