How to Use: Transit Enabled lots to make a 4-way intersection

[threestooges]

Some people have noticed that, when trying to place two transit-enabled (TE) lots on different sides of a road, they will make a "T-intersection" but not a four way as shown here:
-note how the lot connects at point A but not at point B:



The trick with TE lots seems to be how you connect them. Placing the road first does provide the problem shown above. However, after some research I think I may have found a way that works.

For this I have used 2 groups of transit: road (on the left) and streets (on the right...with the brick street mod):
-they are in a 4 point cluster to ensure the ground on all sides will be level (as all intersections must be on level ground)



Next, I attach the TE lots (darmok's rural paths from the STEX) on both sides. Note interestingly that the street connects, but the road does not.



I ran both roads and streets perpendicular to the lots to try to connect them. Again, streets work, roads...not so much.



The street can then be upgraded to a road if you want (but the intersection remains as a street intersection)



This should work with other forms of TE lots (but I have not yet had the chance to test them yet). If anyone has any suggestions to add to this please let me know.

--This post/tutorial continues further down the page.--

[wouanagaine]

hum, have you tried to lay a street between the 2 TE lots on the left ( with the road ) ?

[Diggis]

Can't you just drag a street from one of the TE lots to the other across the road?  Or is that what you are saying Wouanagain

Possibly it's because it's TE'd for a street that it won't automatically create a road intersection.

[threestooges]

Now this is why I ask for comments on these things. Wouanagaine, Diggis, you are both absolutely right in that a person should be able to connect the two TE lots with a street (to be honest I have no idea how a lot is transit enabled, but from what I have gathered it is enabled for a specific type/types of transit). In fact, I redid the road part of it and tried your suggestion. It worked without a problem. What I noticed though, when trying this in game, is that it didn't always work and would say that the slope was unsuitable.

Now, when I made the first part of this, I levelled off the area by street plopping and, as you can see above, used only the 1x1 tiles. When I went back to check this street dragging out, I remade the area using the 2x1 pieces and found the slope problem and got this visual result:



I wondered about the slope error and noticed that the bottom piece was on a small slope. All intersections in the game must be on level surfaces (I don't know who first noted this, but it is true). Proof of this can be seen on a deliberately hilly section of land:



I found though, that street-plopping both sides of the road to be flat:



Would result in a 4-way intersection without a problem:



So to make a long story short (unless there is something else I have missed): in order to make a 4-way intersection with TE lots, the land underneath the entirety of the lot needs to be flat in order to make the intersection work.

One last point on TE lots that was noted by Darmok. You cannot place TE lots back to back. Therefore, they are essentially used to put some space between the actual road and the zone you are trying to reach. The rest of the tiles would just be for eye candy.

Again, suggestions are always welcome.

[Diggis]

Yup, sounds about right.  Nice work.

[dedgren]

This one falls into the "answers to questions most of us never even knew existed department."  I can't count the number of times I've sat staring at some SC4 problem or issue where the darn game just won't do something that I know it should!  Sometimes, I just "brute force" a solution.  Other times I wind up going to bed two or three hours later completely frustrated.  When that happens, I tend to just accept the limitation and move on in the next session.

Then six months later I'll see a post like Matt's (threestooges) in a MD or CJ or in a forum thread and find the answer.  That's pretty random, though.  That's why this sort of tutorial tip is so helpful- it provides quick one-stop shopping for a possible answer before you spend the hours on your own bashing away at something trying this, then that, then that, and then that, and that, and so on.

Thanks, Matt, for putting this together for us.


David