Quick guide to create your neighbourhood.
1 Introduction.

Create neighbourhoods for The Sims2 seems to be easy but there are several things to know.

First you need SimCity 4 ! With this game you have pre-defined cities in some regions.
So it is easier to make a region for your Sims2 creations. When you add a region, tag the plain option, the ocean is not very useful because it will be harder to see your brush underwater. Cities are saved in the “MyDocs\SimCity4\regions\name of region” folder as name of city.SC4.
The Sims2 accept only the smaller areas as neighbourhood. If you want an error message you can try to import one medium or bigger.

a/ you can create a region full of small towns :
With the good old paintbrush edit the config.bmp file in the “MyDocs\SimCity4\regions\”name of region” folder, zoom it 800%, copy a red pic and full the image with this red (it seems to be not the default), save and exit.


b/ Enter the city
By default the game will ask you to reconcile edges. It means that terrain will be at the same height than his neighbours. It may be dangerous if you re-enter a map. So deactivate this option in the game option panel..

c/ The SimCity4 modes
- The God mode is the one you get when you just create a city, it is the main terraforming mode.
- The Mayor mode is the one of building and managing city.
Normally you cannot back to God mode after you activate the mayor mode.
To do it, you must use the cheat :
Control-Alt-Shift + click the God icon

Your new city is not named, you give a name the first time you enter the Mayor mode. When you save your job it will be saved as City – “the name”.sc4 in the…\”region” folder
There is NO UNDO COMMAND in SimCity4 except exit city without saving (saving : Ctrl+S). For myself, I name the city immediately then I back to god mode with the cheat.

An interesting thing for the further use of your neighbourhood is to know where is the sun. It is to have in TS2 the best view in the best place. The sun will be in the right lower corner of your City. Due to the multiple rotation you will have to made, it will be interesting to note it with a forest for example

2 Terraforming tools

-When you select a tool the default big size is selected. By pressing the shift you enlarge it. With the Shift-0 to Shift 1 key commands you lock smaller brushes.

-When you right click on the map you centre the cursor, if you scroll you still centre, useful for adjustments with the maxi zoom.

-When you zoom (in or out) the size of the ground change but not the brush size . If the brush is 10 width in zoom 0, it will be ever 10 in a zoom x2 so it works for a smaller area. You can change between the 6 zoom levels with the mouse wheel and - or + keys.


The different brushes
SimCity game provides help for each tool. Be careful with the valley brushes to make a river, their effects ads but water surface don’t change. I make a unique hole then I flatten the path of the river with the quick level brush, after that it's much easier to redraw and to adjust. I do most of the job with the level terrain tools.

3 Roads an bridges

Among the numerous short cuts keyboard there are only two keys interest us. They are directly accessible in god mode: r for road and b for bulldozer


Roads
- First TS2 accept only ONE type of road … the ROAD ! No streets, no highways or avenues or tunnels…
- Second TS2 accept only horizontal and vertical roads. Even for crossroads.
Making roads on a hilly ground will flatten the path to possible slope. A straight road is often the only way to climb a mountain. Sometime you get a tunnel (it don’t exists in TS2), shorten your road to the top of the hill then restart from this point to do what you want.

Spaces between roads
SC4 and TS2 squares are different. Its quite easy to convert : Nbr SC4 squares are converted in 2*Nbr TS2 squares + 1 TS2 square. (see bellow).


Bridges
Of course you can make bridges. TS2 will convert only 2 types of bridges : the SMALL ARCH and LEVEL ROAD one. But only one type is allowed on each neighbourhood (consider university, downtown or commercial zones as independents).

In basic SC4 build a bridge will raise the ground around the beginning of the bridge. Several squares may be unusable to build. A more than useful mod is able to have flat bridges : the Bridge Height Mod by joerg (don't forget to "thanks") at http://www.simtropolis.com/modding/index.cfm?page=1



Funds
You must pay for building actions. If you are out of funds Ctrl-X then “weaknesspays” is the cheat to add 1000 to your treasury.

Never forget that you make a neighbourhood for your sims..

If you need more... Tutorial : Making a neighbourhood (more tricks)

This tutorial is availlable to download in .RTF format

I hope you understand, I apologize my english !

Existe en francais sur le site du dailysims.com et sur mon groupe :patul4sims2

Great! Thanks a lot for your tut! Now I'm going to try again, building my own SCA-Terrain! Greetings, Katha

Thank you so much! It was *so* annoying to be stuck in mayor mode -- this is a great help!

Thanks a lot. You neighbourhoods are always beautiful! This tutorial was very helpful - I have Sim City 4 but never really knew how to create my own city.

Keep up the great work.

P.S. Your english is getting better!

Thanks for the tutorial...


Neighbourhood/neighborhood creation linkage:

jordi
SimCity 4 terrain hints
http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimfo...read.php?t=1539

patul
Quick guide to create your neighbourhood\
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=171480
Quick help : Install neighbourhood and neighbourhoods terrains
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=172304
Tutorial :Make a neighbourhood with a map
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=174147

travellersside
Guide to Creating Custom Neighbourhoods
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=118117


Trouble-shooting thread:

Neighbourhood making help
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=168793

I Need more help: Do I need another program other then SC4 and TS2 to Import neighbourhoods?

No !

If you want to edit your screenshotts : paintbrush !

I'm new to this. I did everything that you said but, the SC4Terrains file won't show up in TS2 when I play the game. How do I test/install the SC4Terrains file in TS2. I know to move it over into the SC4Terrains folder. What do you mean by editing the Sceenshot in Painbrush? How dose it go from SC4 style to TS2 style?

Please Explain
Thanks for the help

for pbrush explanations here : help to install neighborhood or terrain

If your City-??????.SC4 is in the SC4Terrains folder it's sufficient to work, your will have an ugly image to re-enter but no matter to play.
From SC4 to TS2...I don't know, they are Maxis Games, it works...that is all my knowledge !

I hope i help you, ask me if you need

updated 25/10 : about the TS2 sun position in the SC4 new City

I have a question, does Sims 2 accept the SC4 prize and placetaker buildings? Such as jails and the empire state building? I'll try making a neighborhood tomorrow.

As it is explained TS2 accept only roads, 1 type of bridge, and trees(they are translated very randomly) thats all !

If you have more questions don't hesitate to post them in the building forum

Hey, thanks for this tutorial! I have a quick problem solver for the folks who cannot find their custom-made regions in the Regions folder.

I have Windows Vista. If you have Vista, the Regions folder under C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Regions will NOT display your custom-made regions. You have to look under C:\Users\(YOUR USERNAME)\Documents\SimCity 4\Regions to find them.

If your computer is set up as mine is, you may have two entries for Computer. In thise case, you want the folder named Computer that does not lead to C:\ and other drives, but to a another set of folders with names like Contacts, Documents, Links, Music, etc. It will lead you to the USERS folder just as quickly. Simply go to Computer, then Documents, then SimCity 4, and finally click the Regions folder. You should see your regions right there.

I apologize if this was explained above, but I couldn't post in the troubleshooting thread (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=168793) as it has been closed to comments. Hope it helps.

I'll be surprised if anyone responds to this ancient thread, but is there any other way to create a custom hood other than using SimCity 4? I cannot get that game to run on my Win 7 computer, even after trying many different suggestions I found on the 'net. It occurs to me that the only thing SimCity is used for is to create the roads, as the terrain can be modified with TS2.

Also, toward the top of this thread, the scale comparison between SC4 and TS2 squares, seems improbable. For example, when it says 1 SC4 square equals 3 TS2 squares, does it really mean 30 TS2 squares?

I don't know about your other question, but the scale is referring to neighborhood lot sizes. If you line one simcity square with roads and import the map to ts2, you'll end up with an area exactly the same size as a 3x3 lot. I'm not sure how many squares that translates into in build mode.

And "3x3" is actually 30x30 in build mode. That's what I suspected.
I wish I could get SimsCity 4 to run.
Edit: It looks like I'll be buying an updated edition of Simcity 4 from GOG.