XXL Realistic Highway Mod 2 2.5

Pepino,
I just tried your suggestion about replacing the 3<4 connector with the 4>3 one and that fixed my cloverleaf connection problem. I'll now go about trying out the replacement in my Sacramento test to see if that helps resolve the problems there. I really want to use the RHM mod and now I know I can use the cloverleaf interchange rather than having to go nuts trying to make a convoluted interchange to cross two highways.

I do see the rate of flow on the pieces but I'm still hoping to see heavy flow in one of my tests. Or in a picture. I'll also try out your bus test. Will buses change routes to a more efficient one after a change in highway systems? Or do we have to basically delete all businesses to let them regrow to get traffic to change?

Thanks![/QUOTE]

I am not sure if you will ever see red lines indicating the traffic is heavy on RHM - the capacity is very high at 320 cars/minute and I believe the intensity is relative to the capacity. I.e. don't be disappointed if the lines are green or yellow at max, because the system is working fine.

Many mods are made for city painters, who don't care about dynamics in detail - e.g. 1-lane RHM have the same capacity as 5-lane. It's just an easy way out of traffic problems.

Regarding the bus routes:
- I use the bus lines to check if everything is correct. If there is an incorrect connector or something doesn't connect well, the bus line will not go through.
- The game will automatically optimize the route between 2 bus stops, but will not rearrange them. This goes for all traffic - pedestrian, motorized...

 

Drazicdesign,
That's more like it! Now that I see a good level of traffic moving along your RHM highways I just have to keep working at making the connections correctly. I was able to get buses to use the highway in my Paris test city but so far not in Sacramento. I guess I have more problems than just the two incorrect 3<4 connectors that I changed to 4>3. I wasn't able to get buses to use the highway except at on ramps from the core game.

I'm thinking it's too late to change Sacramento, I'm going to leave it alone and focus on using the RHM in my Paris city once I get it built up to the point where I can build highways. I'm thinking it'll be easier to use RHM from the very beginning rather than trying to replace a core game system after the fact.

Thanks for bearing with me and taking the time to show me what I wanted and needed to see to have confidence in using the RHM plus the addon for more on and off ramps that are two lanes in size. A pity that the XL mod for no pillars hasn't been updated to XXL, that would really help make your fine RHM mod easier to use to make multiple layers of crossing lanes as shown in the example on your Overview page.

 

Drazicdesign,
Thanks for showing me some traffic flow pictures of the RHM, that's what I needed to see! I was able to get the cloverleaf interchange to work in my Paris test city. I wasn't able to get Sacramento working after I replaced the two incorrect 3<4 connectors with 4>3 ones. I tried the bus test Pepino suggested but found that I couldn't get buses to use the RHM highway on ramps, only the core game ones. Obviously there are other connection problems there I'd have to find and solve. I did get the buses to use the RHM highway system in my Paris test city so I have to be diligent in testing my builds at each step to ensure no bad connections.

I'm going to give up on trying to replace the core game highways with RHM in Sacramento, it looks like replacing after the fact doesn't work that well. I'll have to wait until I get my Paris city built up to the point where I can build highways and then use the RHM mod from the beginning of building my highway system there.

I wish that there was an XXL version of that no pillars mod that was done for the XL version, that would make making multi-level crossovers much easier to accomplish without having to sweat out pillars landing on the highway or other on or off ramps.

 

ronrn,
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll have to bear them in mind once I get to building highways using the RHM mod.

 

I am not sure if you will ever see red lines indicating the traffic is heavy on RHM - the capacity is very high at 320 cars/minute and I believe the intensity is relative to the capacity. I.e. don't be disappointed if the lines are green or yellow at max, because the system is working fine.

Many mods are made for city painters, who don't care about dynamics in detail - e.g. 1-lane RHM have the same capacity as 5-lane. It's just an easy way out of traffic problems.

Regarding the bus routes:
- I use the bus lines to check if everything is correct. If there is an incorrect connector or something doesn't connect well, the bus line will not go through.
- The game will automatically optimize the route between 2 bus stops, but will not rearrange them. This goes for all traffic - pedestrian, motorized...[/QUOTE]

Pepino,
Thanks for your helpful suggestions! The bus trick definitely helps point out problems so I'll be using it extensively in the future when I build highways with RHM. I was able toi get the bus route to use the RHM highway system in my small Paris test city but not in Sacramento. Obviously I have more problems than just the two incorrect 3<4 connectors that I replaced with the correct 4>3 ones.

I did think the 320 cars/minute rate was odd for the interchanges and all RHM pieces, however I can see how useful that is to help reduce traffic problems. I'm not so worried about seeing red traffic lines, if I see yellow then I'll definitely know I have a good level of traffic using the RHM highways. Thanks again for your help!

 

I second that. If there is a highway, but an alley behind a housing development is a few hundred feet shorter for someone commuting to work, then they will take that alleyway. If only the game engine could have the drivers pick secondary and tertiary routes when primary routes had too much traffic...

I also read about you putting the right pieces in the game, but if you have a high density area, and want a good traffic flow on the interchange, then try this. It is pretty hard to navigate, but really helps traffic.

 

Steven,
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not so interested in making space-wasting interchanges like shown in the google map pictures. I'm just trying to find more compact designs like I made in Skylines. I made good use of left-hand interchanges which I can't in XXL. I'm hoping to use a combination of core game interchanges like the 3 and 4 way highway ones while I use the RHM and addon pieces to do the on and off ramps. I'm trying to find a balance between time spent on making the highway system and space needed to do it.

 

Yeah. I've never played Cities: Skylines. What's it like?

 

The road and highway building is much better in Skylines, otherwise everything else is much better in XXL. I was barely able to make a million Cim population city in Skylines, made a video to show the proof. Skylines is basically a children's level game, XXL is the adult version. Skylines depends too much on timing and it's basically a chaotic arcade game. I love the economics of XXL plus being able to trade between cities. I'm getting ready to build my third XXL city so I can see how the highway, avenue and rail connections work. My first two are connected by air since they're on separate continents.

I tried very hard in my Paris test city to build an RHM highway system but just couldn't get the traffic to use it, even after trying to force the traffic to. I even used it exclusively with no results. You can see my test here in this video.



You'll see I love my grid system of making road plans. I made such a great grid system road and highway network in Skylines I didn't need to use a traffic manager mod.

 

Try this mod. It works well with XXL. I ran the numbers a long time ago (in XL Platinum) and I seem to remember something like a 40% +- increase in highway usage.
Transportation - Expressway Capacity Increase

 

Omnius Prime ..... I was like you at the beginning, so frustrated with the RHM mods. But, actually this RHM is really good, once you get to understand it.
This is just my opinion, I could be wrong......seems your highway have too many intersections. Highway meant to be for fast speed and goes for a distance. Check this video out, and may be could solve your problem.

....or go to link : Traffic2Flow - YouTube

 

est168,
Thanks for the help and the video. The video just didn't give me any useful info, it doesn't actually show how to get the traffic flow onto the RHM highways. I try to spread out the traffic leaving the highways with many intersections, especially with the core game ones that exit in only one way. That shouldn't mess up traffic flow along the highways though since I maintain four lanes throughout. I just find that the RHM doesn't give me the traffic flow I need, not like the core game's highway system does and so easily.

 

ronrn,
Thanks for the suggestions! I tried this mod but all it did was double the road selections. I saw no difference in flow rate between the two choices for each road type. I let two different saved game files run, with and without RHM, and really saw no difference. I have a feeling that this works in XL but not really in XXL. I'd rather stick to just the core game stuff and reduce the confusion of trying to figure out the RHM mod. I did find the Great Avenue upgrade for large avenues and found that it does help reduce traffic congestion going one way. Easy to use and it works.

 

I want to thank all of those who have tried to help me figure out how to correctly use the RHM mod. Unfortunately I just can't seem to figure out the trick to getting the RHM to move traffic in volumes that the core game highway system does. Thanks to one suggestion I found the 4>3 connector so that I could properly connect core highway to RHM but I just can't seem to get traffic to flow even after trying several thing to force it to use the RHM highway.

I had no problem running highway in both directions in Skylines so had no problem with knowing which way to run RHM highway strips. With my manual dexterity challenged hands it's tough for me to make pretty on and off ramps or curves. One thing I liked about Skylines was that it used no connectors, I could run on and off ramps right from the highway without that creating an intersection. I found no elevated connector for 4 lane highway plus no left lane connectors

I want to specifically thank Drazicdesign, Pepino, ronrn, Steven H. Endermann and est168 for trying to give me specific help. I'll just have to muddle my way through using the core game's highway system since I can make that work easily and quickly. Before this I never knew that some actually paint nice cities with XXL. I like trying to see just how many buildings, population and businesses I can cram into a map. Plus I like making videos to show how awesome Cities XXL really is as well as so many awesome mods made for the game.

 

OmniusPrime, Connecting to and exit highway is easy, by using Ram.
Check out this last video before I go hybernate ! . . ha ha ha


. . or Link : RHMconnect - YouTube

 

est168,
Thanks for the video but it really doesn't show much about connecting to the core game's highway. I found trying to connect RHM directly to map edge only worked well for one side. I also am not interested in wimpy 2 lane highways, even if they're gimmicked to have the same traffic load as 4 lane ones. I did like the way the on and off ramps were done, that's a novel way to connect them to allow for a long run to the avenue. However that requires elevated highways which means costly bridges. Ironically I did elevated highways in Skylines, with an elevated rail line in between. Plus I could do elevated left connections with highway as off ramp. No connectors needed either.

For me the RHM is too much work for too little benefit. I didn't see busy traffic flow in your videos nor did I see the traffic filter to show the colors of usage. All I know is the core game's highway system works and is easy for me to use. I have ten reasons why I don't play arcade games, my fingers! They're all thumbs. One major factor that makes me want to use the core game's highways.

 

That's a cool city. Thanks for the info (and for saving me the twenty-five (or however many) dollars). I no longer plan on buying Cities: Skyline. I kind of like the grid system, too. It is easily expandable.

 

Steven,
I try to do grid road systems to make laying out avenues and highways easier. I'm still trying to find the right combination of space between intersections as well as the highway on and off ramps which need to be longer than in my first two cities. I like XXL because there is so much still to learn for me. I can't wait to get my Paris city to the point where I can do the highway and rail connections between cities, something you can't do in Skylines. I want to see how the rail stations work as well as laying out rail lines. I keep sections near they map clear in both of my cities to leave room for my future rail connections.

Also a really nice group here doing XXL, so glad there are modders who keep making new mods for XXL. I hope my videos will help entice new players to give XXL a try.

 

Drazicdesign updated XXL Realistic Highway Mod with a new update entry:

Road signs available.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

Had to uninstall it because nearly all of my exits had disappeared, tried looking in the custom content section but could only find some of the exits. not exactly sure what this update does...