Draggable FAR Tutorial

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Introduction to Draggable FAR

This tutorial will illustrate the drag patterns for draggable FAR (fractional angle roads) with step-by-step instructions on how to draw them out.  There are two angles of draggable FAR — FAR-2 (26.6° or rise of 2 over run of 1) and FAR-3 (18.4° or rise of 3 over run of 1).  Let's start with FAR-2 since it is the easiest.

Part 1-1: Draggable FAR-2 Straight Segment


(1.) First step is to drag out a 1x3 orthogonal segment of road.


(2.) Now drag out another 1x3 orthogonal segment of road next to the one you just built, shifted down (or up, depending on which way you want to build your road).

•  Notice the preview is already beginning to reflect FAR-2.

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You should now end up with a 2x2 segment of FAR-2. You might have noticed it looks a little curved at the top — this is because it's trying to create an ortho to FAR-2 curve. Just click on it and it should straighten out.

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You now have the base FAR-2 segment. It's helpful to think of them as 2x2 blocks. When you build your stretch of FAR-2 road you will be stacking these 2x2 blocks on top of each other, shifted over one tile. A rise of 2 over a run of 1.

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(3.) Continue to drag from the end of the FAR-2 segment in the desired direction. Two tiles should do it. The preview should still reflect FAR-2 and if it does, you're on the right road.


(4.) At this point, you're essentially dragging out 1x4 segments because a 1x4 is like two halves of two 2x2s. Continue this as long as desired and you should have a nice stretch of FAR-2 road.

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Part 1-2: Draggable FAR-2 Curves

Now for the curves.
•  FAR-2 can curve to three different directions: orthogonal (a 26.6° curve), diagonal (an 18.4° curve), and FAR-3 (an 8.1° curve). We're going to only worry about orthogonal and diagonal for now and will cover the FAR-3 curve when we cover FAR-3 later.
•  Let's curve to orthogonal at the south end of our FAR-2 road and then we'll do diagonal at the north end.


(1.) Locate the spot where you want to curve the road to orthogonal. This will be particularly important if you already have a stretch of ortho road built, but in our case we don't.


(2.) From the end of any 2x2 segment of FAR-2, drag out an orthogonal road of any length. This one is probably the easiest out of all the FAR curves.

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That's it! All there is to that one. Now for the diagonal.


(1.) Locate the spot where you want to curve the FAR-2 road to diagonal.


(2.) There's prep work involved here. You won't be dragging out the diagonal from exactly the same spot you would drag out an ortho road for an ortho to FAR-2 curve. If you have a stretch that looks like this you must demolish the end of it.

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•  You need it to look like this:


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(3.) Drag out a diagonal road from the broken road stub leading away from the FAR-2 road. If you're doing it right the preview will confirm it.

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Well done!

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Part 1-3: Draggable FAR-2 Intersections

Now for the intersections! FAR-2 is presently capable of making intersections only with orthogonal streets and roads, and then only in scenarios such that the acute angles will be greater than 45°, so this will be short.  Streets first.


(1.) Drag an orthogonal street into the FAR-2 road until it touches a wide 1x1 segment of FAR-2.

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Why is this important you might ask?


If you only drag the street into one of the little narrow slivers of FAR-2 road, you'll get this instead of an intersection.

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Here it is! Note that it's only a T-intersection; if you wanted a full +-intersection then you should drag the street all the way across the FAR-2 road.





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That's it! You've got it. FAR-2 intersections with orthogonal roads are actually done in exactly the same way.  Just use road instead of street.



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FAR-2 can also branch off from an orthogonal road as a T-intersection.


(1.) For the ortho x FAR-2 T-intersection, drag out a 1x3 road segment intersecting the ortho road. Drag it out in the general direction you want the FAR-2 road to go.


(2.) Continuing in the direction you want the FAR-2 road to go, drag out another 1x3 segment next to the first one, shifted so that it ends on the tile that diagonally borders the first road stub.


(3.) Using the Road tool, click on the tile just past the intersection.


There is our ortho x FAR-2 T-intersection.

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Part 2-1: Draggable FAR-3 Straight Segments

Second, we have FAR-3. It's gonna be a little more complicated; despite this it is actually the first FAR angle to be introduced to the game.


(1.) Drag out a 1x4 segment of orthogonal road. Because it's FAR-3 and not FAR-2 this segment is therefore one tile longer.


(2.) Drag out another 1x4 segment of ortho road like the first one, shifted over one tile and up (or down) one tile.  The preview will look like this if you have it in the right place.  You must begin dragging on the tile which diagonally touches one of the road stubs and end it such that it diagonally touches the other road stub.  Note that the sliver in the preview is actually the tile you will begin dragging this segment on.

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Here is our basic FAR-3 road segment.


It is a 2x3 block for all practical purposes, as opposed to 2x2 like our FAR-2. It's a rise of 3 over a run of 1.

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(3.) Continue to drag out ortho road from the end of the FAR-3 segment. Three more tiles should do for now to keep it FAR-3 as the preview will show.


(4.) Now just drag out 1x6 segments so that they line up with the FAR-3 road in 2x3 blocks. You'll get a stretch of FAR-3 road.

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Part 2-2: Draggable FAR-3 Curves

Now for the curves. FAR-3 can curve in one of four different directions: orthogonal (an 18.4° curve), FAR-2 (an 8.1° curve), diagonal (a 26.6° curve), and sharp orthogonal (a 71.6° curve). We will be building each of them. Once again it might be more complicated if you already have roads in place to which you want to curve your FAR-3 road.

(1.) For the standard FAR-3 to ortho curve, first locate where you want to curve to orthogonal.



(2.) You will need a 1x2 broken road stub visible to build this curve. Bulldoze road segments until you get one.

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This is tricky, but just remember that the 1x2 stub must be next to the FAR-3 road in such a way that neither end of it borders that little sliver of road at the corner of that one tile.

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(3.) Start dragging out the orthogonal road from the tile just past the stub leading away from the FAR-3 road. It is important that you don't actually drag it out from the stub itself or this won't work.

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Here's your FAR-3 to orthogonal road curve.

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(1.) For the FAR-3 to diagonal you'll want to do much like you did for the orthogonal and bulldoze to get a 1x2 stub in much the same place not having it border the sliver.



(2.) This time, bulldoze the sliver while you're at it.


(3.) Drag out a diagonal road from the tile just past the end of the 1x2 stub, much like you did for the ortho.

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Your FAR-3 to diagonal road curve is complete.

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Now for the FAR-3 to FAR-2 curve, which surprisingly I think is the easiest curve to make from FAR-3.


(1.) Locate the end of a FAR-3 segment from which you want to curve to FAR-2.


(2.) This time, rather than bulldozing, we want to drag out a 1x2 segment of ortho road, starting with the road stub at the end of the FAR-3 stretch.


(3.) Begin dragging out a 1x4 segment of road next to the FAR-3 stub, starting just before the stub.




(4.) With the Road tool, click on the stub.

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The curve is complete. You can now drag out FAR-2 from the FAR-2 end of the curve just as you did before when building FAR-2, with the 1x4 segments.

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Finally, the FAR-3 to ortho sharp curve. This one's a monster!


(1.) From the end where you want to build your 71.6° FAR-3 to ortho curve, start dragging out a 90-degree road turn from the stub in the direction your ortho road will go.




(2.) Drag out a T-intersection from the 90° turn, in the general direction the FAR-3 road was going.




(3.) From the road stub you just got with that T-intersection, drag out a 1x3 segment of road past the first road stub, in the direction your ortho road will go.

•  Easy way to remember this is that it will somewhat resemble the letter F.

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(4.) Beginning with the tile near the 1x3 segment that diagonally touches the corner of the 90° turn, drag out a road in the direction you want your ortho road to go; this will be the ortho road.


(5.) Click on the 3x1 segment of road with the Road tool.

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Here's the 71.6° sharp FAR-3 to orthogonal curve. That one's tough.

It's no wonder why one wasn't included for FAR-2.

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Part 2-3: Draggable FAR-3 Intersections

Now for the intersections! FAR-3 road can intersect ortho streets, ortho roads, and FAR-3 roads, in addition to ortho rail.

First we've got the ortho streets.


(1.) Drag the ortho street into the FAR-3 road. Much like with FAR-2, you must drag it all the way into a wide FAR-3 tile and not just the sliver, or it won't work.


(2.) Note that if you're building an intersection into the middle tiles of a 2x3 FAR-3 segment, you must drag the street through both middle tiles.




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(3.) If it's a +-intersection, just drag the ortho street all the way through.


•  For ortho road intersections with FAR-3, it's the same deal.

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It's much the same for ortho rail crossings with FAR-3, with two important limitations:


(1.) You must drag the rail through the middle tiles of any given FAR-3 2x3 segment; therefore a rail can only cross every third tile of any given FAR-3 stretch.


(2.) While it's not mandatory, you really should drag the rail all the way across rather than trying to make a T-intersection because it makes little to no sense to have the rails end abruptly in the middle of the road.



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Now, the FAR-3 90° intersections. Note that a FAR-3 x FAR-3 intersection must be at 90° angles — you can't build what would be the FAR-3 equivalent of an OxD.


(1.) Locate a stretch of FAR-3 road where you want to build an intersection.


(2.) Drag a 1x4 segment of road through the FAR-3 road. It doesn't matter where at along the FAR-3 road you do this.


(3.) Drag out another 1x4 segment of road next to the first one in the general direction the new FAR-3 road will go, shifted up one tile. It's just like when you first built the FAR-3 road earlier.
•  Notice what the preview does.

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Here's your FAR-3 x FAR-3 intersection. You may now drag out the FAR-3 road from the stubs as desired, using the methods you used earlier in the tutorial.



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For the FAR-3 x FAR-3 T-intersection it's a little more picky. Much like with the railroad crossing from before, you can only build this intersection on the middle tiles of a 2x3 FAR-3 segment.


(1.) Drag out a 1x5 segment of ortho road from either middle tile, temporarily forming a FAR-3 x ortho T-intersection. Make sure there are three road tiles available on the ortho segment.


(2.) Next to the 3 available ortho road tiles, draw out a 1x4 road segment ending on the tile that diagonally borders the road stub. The preview now looks like the picture above.



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(3.) Using the Road tool, click on the ortho road tile just past the T-intersection.

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There is our T-intersection.

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There is but one more FAR intersection to cover when it comes to draggable FAR: the ortho x FAR-3 T-intersection. FAR-3 can branch off an ortho road.

The ortho x FAR-3 is built much the same way as our ortho x FAR-2 T, only using 1x4 segments instead of 1x3.


(1.) Drag out a 1x4 road segment intersecting the ortho road. Drag it out in the general direction you want the FAR-3 road to go.


(2.) Continuing in the direction you want the FAR-3 road to go, drag out another 1x4 segment next to the first one, shifted so that it ends on the tile that diagonally borders the first road stub.


(3.) Using the Road tool, click on the tile just past the intersection.


The intersection is complete.

This FAR tutorial is complete! We didn't cover the old FAR puzzle pieces, nor did we cover FARR, FAAVE, FAOWR, or FARHW. Those will come later, but this is just something to get started.